I have been moving to working on larger paintings in the studio over the last few months. There are a few reasons for this. The Christopher Queen Gallery where I sell the majority of my landscapes requested that I don’t bring in so many small works. It makes sense. As long as the paintings are good, she is able to sell them quickly. Paintings at this size make me more money, money I need to keep the business going. I love the studio but it’s a good chunk of money that I have to spend every month on it. The artistic merits of working larger are not to be missed, either. I’m getting quicker at doing these larger pieces, but they do take more time regardless. I am learning different techniques that I started to learn in the field but am able to finesse in the studio. Having all this time to work on these paintings makes me really think about what I’m doing instead of letting so many happy accidents happen with that limited amount of time to work from life in one shot.

I worked this one up from a study from life that I made a couple of years ago. Go to my Instagram feed to see some work-in-progress shots.

“Morning At Tejon Ranch” 28×30 inches.

This painting I worked up from some photos that I took at Tejon Ranch. It’s a relatively exclusive view on account of it being a private ranch. There was painting of a tree that I did during Kern County Plein Air that served as reference for the tree and some of the haziest mountains in the back.

“Sunset Grove” Santa Rosa, California. 16×24 inches.

This painting was done from a mixture of life and studio photographs. Working completely from life has its disadvantages, it’s a little harder to spend time on the drawing because time is of the essence out there. If you’re trying to draw with color, you have to make sure it’s the right color as you put it down. You can see some shots of this one in progress on my IG feed as well.

“Cacophony of Greens” Point Lobos State Reserve, Monterey County California. 16×24 inches.

This one was also started as a study from life during a plein air event. I took the study and sized it up(different format). It was a tough subject not only with the complication of the forest grove, but the relatively flat light that I worked on this with. I cheated a little bit with some faint sunlight on some of the trunks. I learned a lot while painting this one. I think the trees on the left have some of my best edge work to this date.

All of these paintings (minus the Tejon Ranch painting) are on display at Christopher Queen Gallery in Duncans Mills, California.

What better way to commemorate the GRIDLIFE festival of racing, drifting and music than to feature tandem FRS redlining through a goddamn skull? T-shirt design and limited edition, 7 color screen print.